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Wednesday

There is a play on words here that is cute. However, this is usual fare romance, albeit the story takes place between an interim fire chief and a pastor... you guessed it, the fire chief is a woman. The story would have been really innovative about 10 years ago.

The story has really good moments, especially after we get past the sacrificial part which takes up about 3/4 of the book, because it takes that long for the protag to figure out what's going on in her heart... and what wrong about it. This is something that the reader figures out in the second chapter.

It's a good rainy Sunday afternoon read, but it isn't a page-turner. I'm not really sure why that is. The characters are well defined and basically stay in their places. There's no blurring of roles, and the suspense is done pretty well, too, but for the reader it is very transparent and the characters seem pretty obtuse, obsessing over the past almost like the author got up from the typewriter for about two weeks and had to recap again and again.

Let me wax on a bit here, maybe even soap box it a bit. When a person falls in love with another person, the reasons they fall in love are myriad, but one thing remains constant... the person begins to trust the other. With that trust come belief in that person. When the protag jumps to a conclusion at the end of this book it was clumsily done and for a smart cookie--she sure was dumb. Love does not make a person's eyes and brain suddenly see 20/20. Love usually blankets reason and a person tries everything under the sun to believe the best of their love, not the worst. This one was disappointing.

Susan grew up in Wayzata, a suburb of Minneapolis, and became an avid camper from an early age. Her favorite fir-lined spot is the north shore of Minnesota is where she met her husband, honeymooned and dreamed of living.

The north woods easily became the foundation for her first series, The Deep Haven series, based on a little tourist town along the shores of Lake Superior. Her first full-length book, Happily Ever After, became a Christy Award Finalist published in 2004 with Tyndale/Heartquest.

As an award winning author, Susan returned home in 2004, to her native Minnesota after serving for eight years with her husband and four children as missionaries with SEND International in Far East Russia. She now writes full time from Minnesota's north woods and the beautiful town that she always dreamed of living in.

You can sample a chapter of each and every one of Susan's novels, on her website, HERE.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Ellie Karlson is new to Deep Haven. As the town’s interim fire chief, she is determined to lead the local macho fire crew in spite of their misconceptions about her. But when someone begins setting deadly fires, Ellie faces the biggest challenge of her life. Especially when sparks fly with one of the volunteers on her crew: Pastor Dan Matthews. As Ellie battles to do her job and win the respect of her crew, she finds that there is one fire she can’t fight—the one Dan has set in her heart.(This book is the repackaged edition published in 2004)

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About Me

My first love is using my
God-given talent to shine a light in a dark world, and I am so committed to
bringing God glory with my editing and my own writing. We are always looking for good authors at Christian Publishing House. I am a weekly columnist for Studylight.org and monthly contributor at LivingBetter50.com Each column comes out on Sundays at LiveAsIf.org for Studylight. Check them out.